David Sturges Sprague Sammis

SAMMIS David Sturgis Sprague 77 years
d. 19 May 1895 at Babylon; Bright's disease; son of Daniel Sammis, whoserved in the War of 1812; father of Joseph M. Sammis and fivedaughters; proprietor of the Surf Hotel on Fire Island; went intohotel business in New York City in 1848 and in 1856 built a hotel onFire Island for 100 guests, which he soon enlarged; he introduced gas[lighting ?] and made the hotel AFirst Class@; sold his interest inNew York City hotels in 1858, to devote himself fully to the SurfHotel and real estate ventures in Babylon; built a street railway fortransporting guests from the railroad depot to the steamboat dock atBabylon; served as postmaster at Fire Island; organized the BabylonNational Bank and the Babylon Water Company; leader in theincorporation of Babylon Village; sold his hotel property on FireIsland to New York State in 1892 to be used for a cholera quarantinestation; this upset the people of Babylon, causing of Governor of NewYork State to call out two regiments of troops to keep order; leftestate of $300,000 to his widow, son and five daughters.

April 8, 1890 daughter Antionette "Annie" who married Edwin Tighepassed away after only a year of marriage, in Babylon, LI.

1870 Census Huntington, LI, NY
David S. Sammis-m 50, hotel keeper,
Antoinette M.-f 38, keeping house
Emeline W. 15, Louisa A. 13, Joseph M. 11, Annie P. 9, Nettie H. 6,Sarah E. 3

David S. S. Sammis from:http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028834848

David Sturges Sprague Sammis was born in the town
of Huntington, near Babylon, in the year 1818. His
father, Daniel Sammis, was a soldier in the war of 181 2,
and lived to be 84 years old. His mother is still living,
in her 90th year. His grandfather served in the Revolu-
tionary war. The Sammises originally came from Hol-
lond, four brothers settling on Long Island.

Up to the age of 17 our subject lived on a farm, and
learned to handle the shovel and the hoe. In the year
1835 he went to New York to learn the druggist's busi-
ness with Edward A. McLean, 208 Greenwich street.
There he staid two years, but, the peculiar atmosphere
of a drug store not agreeing with him, he left and en-
gaged as a clerk with Mackarel & Simpson, stage pro-
prietors. In the year 1848 he leased of James Rowe,
father-in-law of the late Dr. James R. Wood of New
York, the property on the corner of East Broadway and
Pike street, New York, where he opened a hotel under
the name of the East Broadway House, which was recog-
nized as the headquarters for politicians, without regard
to party. In 1855 he bought an undivided portion of
Fire Island, which had been used theretofore only as
a pasture for cattle. The next year he had built a hotel
with accommodations for 100 guests, on his recent pur-
chase. Under his skillful and- liberal management the
place at once became popular, proving a financial suc-
cess. During the following winter he added 100 feet to
his building, making everything first-class, to the extent

of introducing gas throughout the whole hotel. In 1858
he sold the East Broadway House to the well known
Nicholas Houseman of New York, since which time
he has devoted his entire time to his large and constantly
growing interests in Suffolk county.

On another page is to be seen a view of this monster
palatial summer resort, which furnishes the very best
accommodations for over 500 guests. From its first be-
ginnings to the present time it has been the child of Mr.
Sammis's own rearing, conceived in his fertile brain, and
developed and perfected by his hand and his purse. The
undertaking has beenevery year more and more success-
ful, but some losses have attended its history. A $25,000
steamboat, built to carry his patrons across the Great
South Bay, was caught in an ice gorge one winter night
and utterly ruined except her boiler and some of her
machinery. The next spring, with his accustomed energy,
Mr. Sammis replaced the wrecked boat with a bet-
ter one. To further add to the comfort of visitors
to Fire Island he has built a street railroad from
the depot in the village of Babylon to the steamboat
landing.

Besides this great watering place enterprise, Mr. Sam-
mis has large property interests in the village of Babylon,
where he resides and where he is noted for personal
worth and public spirit. Mr. Sammis is a representative
man of the times, wide awake, far-seeing, of excellent
judgment and perfect integrity, with a large heart and
a broad, genial nature, that makes a host of friends and
holds them.